Sarah Palin begins to build her network of advisors

Politico's Ben Smith reports:

Randy Scheunemann, has emerged as an advisor to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as she attempts to build a serious public profile and begins to build a network of aides and advisors typical of a national politician.

Scheunemann confirmed this evening that he's with Palin in Hong Kong, where she is delivering a paid speech at a conference hosted by the brokerage house CLSA, which has in the past heard keynotes from Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

Rich Lowry recounts how the McCain campaign eventually split over their vice presidential candidate, with the communications team mostly dissing Palin, while Steve Biegun, Randy Scheunemann and other policy advisors supported her. Scheunemann was one of Sarah Palin's staunchest defenders within the McCain camp, and he nearly lost his job because of it:

Steve Schmidt has told people [Randy Scheunemann] was fired the last week of the campaign; Scheunemann says he wasn't fired; others say Schmidt tried to fire him (at one point cutting off his e-mail) but was over-ruled by [campaign manager Rick] Davis. (Scheunemann's offense was writing an email to Bill Kristol defending Palin and criticizing the handling of her.)

Also helping out with former Governor Palin's Hong Kong speech, according to Smith, were Dan Blumenthal and Kim Daniels.

Blumenthal is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he has worked on the national security implications of U.S.-Sino relations and coordinates the Tocqueville on China project, which examines the underlying civic culture of post-Mao China. Blumentahl has also served as commissioner and former vice chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, where he directed efforts to monitor, investigate, and provide recommendations on the national security implications of the economic relationship between the two countries. He had previously held the position of senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Secretary of Defense's Office of International Security Affairs.

Daniels, an attorney with the Thomas More Law Center in Washington, penned an excellent op-ed for NRO in 2003 presenting the case for confirming Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Court of Appeals, but the Democrats would not allow a conservative and well-qualified Hispanic such as Estrada to be seated on the court. Apparently, wise Latinas and Latinos are acceptable only if they steer to  the port side of the ship of state.

- JP